Cleaning Up Needless References To Reviewers

Bringing up the following example from Star Trek Voyager S 5 E 18 The Fight:

• Bizarro Episode: Let's put it this way: when Mark Oshiro reviewed all the Voyager episodes, he was fond of saying "Keep Voyager Weird" because he admired the show's willingness to explore more outlandish concepts than other Trek shows. And yet this episode was too surreal even for him.

That's a perfect exemplar of one of the reasons I most hate these references: while it's much longer than the average "Trope: X" format, it's for all intents and purposes a ZCE. The Bizarro Episode example actually is totally appropriate, IMO (the episode, IIRC, involves Chakotay making contact with an alien from another reality... which is depicted as an old-fashioned boxing match), but it should be commented out until it gets an actual description.

Edited by nrjxll on Jul 27th 2022 at 4:18:18 AM

Bringing up the following example from NoOntologicalInertia.Film:

• Star Wars:
  • Episode IV: A New Hope, as a standalone, would have you believe that the Empire was utterly destroyed after the Death Star was. Return of the Jedi is even worse, as lampshaded in the second Robot Chicken special: "The Rebels are right there! Get them!" "We... can't." "Why not? We still have this fleet, and they're almost destroyed." "No, you see, we lost." "We what?" "Yes, afraid so. They blew up the Death Star and killed the Emperor. We lost.

Didn't return feature the death of both the emperor and his entire military leadership. Of course that would cripple any government or military? I don't get what this is saying.

The part about A New Hope is wrong. Darth Vader survives.

Also, my understanding of the trope is that it's "creation is instantly destroyed when the creator dies," which doesn't apply to the Death Star.

I'd cut the entire entry. Underneath are paragraphs and paragraphs of natter and justifying edits.

Bringing up the following example from One of the Kids:

• Winnie Goodwin from the short-lived ABC show Free Spirit (1989). In addition to providing the page quote, Platypus Comix has this to say about her:
  Winnie is centuries old, but in terms of development by human standards, she's in her early twenties — in looks and in attitude. Not only does she understand the Harper children in a way most grown-ups fail to, she often has the same wants and desires.

Cut the quote and mention of Platypus, then comment it out as it's a zero-context example without it.

ArtifactTitle.Real Life has two Rational Wiki citations that seem largely unnecessary, as almost no other entry is cited. The second is also snarky.

• The laws in almost half the U.S. states that prohibit collective bargaining agreements that require all represented employees to join the union or at least pay agency fees are called "right to work" laws because they're descended from laws that permitted an employee to work if they wanted while everyone else was on strike—they were called "right to work" to contrast them with the "right to strike" that unions were claiming in the early 20th century, now recognized legally. The term has persisted even though the only "right to work" it recognizes is the right to not join the union because it sounds so good that it wins the argument for a great many people simply on the strength of that term alone (who could possibly be against it?).
  • Note, however, that this meaning of "right to work" only exists within the United States. As Rational Wiki notes, outside the US (and for the United Nations) the "right to work" actually means the "right to have a job" (guaranteed by government full employment programs) and is defended by trade unionists

• The U.S. progressive activist group Move On was originally founded during the Clinton impeachment to advocate for "censure, and move on" as a punishment. It's moved on to many other causes since then. As Rational Wiki puts it, "The irony of the organization being originally founded to get us to move on from Clinton's improprieties now constantly reminding people of those improprieties every time they see its name seems to be lost on them".

Is there any reason to keep this CinemaSins reference under this entry on YMMV.Despicable Me 3?

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Could Valerie Da Vinci be a disguise of Balthazar Bratt? Like Bratt, she dresses in shoulder pads and wears purple, and given Bratt's acting abilites, it wouldn't be hard to imagine he could pull this off. This would also clear up the confusion of how Bratt learned Gru was fired from the AVL, as CinemaSins pointed out. Also shows why she doesn't appear again.

Cut out the CinemaSins mention.

Rational Wiki is known for its snarky commentary and for being a moral substitute for Conservapedia, itself a moral substitute for The Other Wiki.

Edited by Nen_desharu on Jul 29th 2022 at 7:53:57 AM

I understand what it is, but is it relevant?

Bringing up the following example from Free Spirit (1989):

• Hilarious in Hindsight: The first episode has Winnie get the older kids concert tickets by having them pop out of their toaster. Seven years later, another ABC sitcom about a young witch would have correspondence from other magical beings frequently pop out of a toaster, in a near-identical fashion. Peter Paltridge was quick to make the comparison in his review of the Sabrina pilot, then remark that he challenged himself to not mention FS during the review: "I was doing great until now."

Probably not necessary if he's not the only person to note that.

From The Old Guard:

• Tastes Like Diabetes: Joe and Nicky’s relationship can definitely be this for some viewers, especially those who weren’t expecting romance in an action film.
  Honest Trailer Guy: Ugh, as if eternal life wasn't already enough of a curse; imagine spending it single next to a lovey-dovey couple. Kill me...

Is that quote really nescassary? I can't see what it adds and Honest Trailers isn't even mentioned in the write up before hand. Also isn't this example a little Zero Context or is it just me.

You're correct on both accounts. The entry needs further elaboration AND the Honest Trailers quote can go.

Okay example is hidden and the quote is gone.

Yeah, the entry isn't even right because Tastes Like Diabetes is a redirect now, it has to be either in-universe or not.

Out of universe is Sweetness Aversion (the example of which maybe needs to be rewritten since it only seems to apply for works trying to be kid-friendly) which is about audiences not wanting to watch something. Probably doesn't apply here since the movie got good reviews and enough audience success to get a sequel.

Also the fact that the Old Guard's example is about two men loving each other is pretty gross. (In this case, the writer made it part of his contract that the movie had to include a scene of those two characters expressing their love for each other). The scene itself received a lot of praise for actually not beating around the bush with queer romance and being very upfront with it.

Yeah I have never heard of any fans being turned off from watching it because of their relationship. If anything more people watched it because of the fact that it's two gay characters in a loving relationship. Maybe it should just be cut.

Bringing up the following examples from Dull Surprise:

• Linkara mocks an issue of Uncanny X-Men (#423) for having Nightcrawler reveal a surprising bit of info and having all the characters react in shock… "or rather with apathy, shock, confusion, boredom and surprise◊". He also mocked the Quasi-Trope Namer seen above.

• Tony Cardoza has exactly one scene in The Skydivers where he emotes, and it's not the one where he realizes his wife is cheating on him or the one where he realizes his parachute has been sabotaged and he's about to die. The Agony Booth, in its recap, features The Many Moods of Tony Cardoza, showing his identical expression of mild indigestion for situations ranging from guilt to sorrow to rage.

• Twilight:
  • In fact, Screen Junkies, creator of Honest Trailers, made a supercut video of all the times people in the Twilight films are staring at each other without talking. The video is just under half an hour!
  • Cuckoo at least shows that Lautner has some level of emotional range, and the same applies to Stewart in The Runaways.
    RiffTrax: ...Line?

• Edward Burns in the film version of A Sound of Thunder. Just check the pictures of this recap (who describes him as "only slightly less stiff than the fossilized bones of the dinosaurs they hunt").

• Channing Tatum and Sienna Miller in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Their roles could have been played with cardboard cutouts and tape recorders and nobody would have noticed the difference (at least one reviewer said the special effects are more animated than Tatum).

• Fireproof manages to make this look natural with Kirk Cameron's character. As a volunteer firefighter, Caleb tends to automatically swallow his emotions in a crisis, leading to vacillating between Dull Surprise and completely exploding. Fred Clark, at Slacktivist, has credited Cameron's acting style to his having learned to act as a child actor in a family sitcom: child actors in such shows learn, primarily, a) to mug and b) to wait until someone else has delivered a line. "Watch CamCam's reaction and see if you can spot one. CamCam isn't talking, so CamCam isn't acting."

• Kevin Costner, in most of his roles.
  • Smeghead parodied it by imitating Costner's monotone narration until he felt the need to "kick my own ass".

• Star Wars:
  • This is an oft-quoted criticism of the Prequel films. With few exceptions, the denizens of the Galaxy seem to treat the Clone Wars and some shady Sith as if they were business as usual. The creators of Darths & Droids even noted how often the Serkis Folk are more expressive than the actors.

• Liu Yifei, who would later be cast as Mulan in the 2020 remake, has gathered a reputation as this in China. The author of the source material of one of her movies has declared that “Ms. Liu looks pretty, but she is afraid of being ugly, and she doesn’t dare to make facial expressions.”

• The book Planet Baywatch underlines the point with a page called "The Many Moods Of Matt," illustrated with four pictures of David Charvet (as Matt Brody) captioned "Angry," "Sad," "Sexy" and "Introspective" - all accompanying the same blank-faced stare.

• The X-Files:
  • It was a point of some parody (including a MADtv (1995) sketch) during the popularity of this show that both David Duchovny and, to a lesser extent, Gillian Anderson would frequently react to mysterious or horrific events with deadpan near-monotone exclamations (since their acting was just fine when the other's character was in danger, though, one could assume that they've become a bit jaded).

From Peter Pan.

• Adaptational Wimp: Captain Hook. As Internet reviewer Unshaved Mouse notes:
  Even his own men don't seem to fear him and he's murdering them on a regular basis! [The book] mentions that Hook is feared by "the Sea-Cook". As in, Long John freakin' Silver was afraid of this guy. The Disney version wouldn't scare Captain Crunch.

Cut out all the reviewer mentions, comment some out because they're zero-context entries without the reviewer mentions.

Re-write the entry to cut the reviewer mention and include the info the critic noted (but re-written in a less snarky and "edgy" way).

Edited by DongwaChan on Aug 6th 2022 at 10:35:54 AM

Bringing this up from Just Eat Gilligan:

• Jaws: The Revenge features the shark specifically coming after members of the Brody family. The mother decides to leave town, but if the shark was only coming after them, wouldn't it be easier to just stay away from the water?
  • In their takedown of this movie, the God Awful Movies crew stage a mock trailer for a shark movie where the shark is just not a problem:
  Noah: (Announcer Voice) This Summer... JUST THE LAND.
  Heath: So, you wanna go skiing?
  Eli: Skiing, nice! Yeah, no sharks there!
  Heath: No Sharks, exactly! Solved!

I think you can cut that.

Bringing up the following examples from About Schmidt:

• Despair Event Horizon: The entire film is Warren starting at a Despair Event Horizon, and slowly getting worse. Roger Ebert noted that the film was the embodiment of the idiom by Henry David Thoreau, "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation," later saying in the review that the film "is not about a man who goes on a journey to find himself, because there is no one to find." Warren learns that he isn't becoming a special someone that the magazines write about. The climax of his despair is Warren's speech just before receiving the letter.
  Warren: (narrating) But what kind of difference have I made? What in the world is better because of me?... What difference has my life made to anyone? None that I can think of. None at all.
• Empty Shell: What Warren is, especially after the death of his wife Helen.
  Ebert: About Schmidt is essentially a portrait of a man without qualities, baffled by the emotions and needs of others.